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Flowers, Fish, and Snakes…Oh My!

Posted on April 23, 2012 by kissmybroccoli

Hey guys!

So, it sounds like you all are a lemon-loving bunch! Thank you for all the comments on the Lemon Poppyseed Pancakes from yesterday…I just wish I could take credit for such deliciousness!

I can’t wait to finish up my review of the other nu new NuNaturals product, their orange-flavored stevia, so I can get a chance to share some with you guys! Notice I used the term “guyS”…

That’s right, there will be a chance for not one, not two, but FOUR winners on this giveaway! Yay for free stuff! 😉

I know, I know…I’m hurrying!

Anywho, how about that post title? I thought it seemed appropriate after yesterday’s Wizard of Oz reference…believe me, I’m trying hard to resist the urge to belt out “Over the Rainbow” right now!

So while I could have been in the kitchen all day yesterday, plotting delicious plans with my stevia products, I chose to spend the day in the great outdoors, exploring with BB. We left the ever sexy Mistress of the Road at home, and decided to take BB’s baby out for a little fun instead:

Sadly, she was nameless until yesterday when I dubbed her:

Regina the Ranger!

Her middle name is 4×4 for those interested! 😉

It was a cool and windy day yesterday, so most of our adventure was of the off-roading, jolt-the-spine-out-of-your-back variety, but Fern did a pretty good job of navigating us over hills and through ditches to find some hidden gems.

And of course, I have photo documentation:

The purple flowers are Wisteria…and after smelling them for the first time yesterday, I’ve decided I want to plant like TWENTY of them in my backyard!

After a while of jumping in and out of the truck/hanging the camera out the window to get some shots of all the scenery, we came across a man-made beach and decided to get out and walk around.

Luckily, the clouds decided to part around that time, so we had a few warm minutes in the sun. We found a man-made beach and explored a bit right at the shoreline:

See that little guy at the top right? That’s a skeleton of an Alligator Gar…but just a wee one as it isn’t uncommon to see them get to 6.5 FEET in length!

Just a little bit of fish trivia for ya…BB is FULL of fun little facts about nature and wildlife and I’ve realized the more I hang out with him, the more it rubs off on me.

So keep us in mind if you ever need a lifeline or anything! 😉

Of course, like many of our nature outings, I get click happy and take about 500 pictures of plants and flowers, while BB goes on a hunt for wildlife.

Remember that time he caught a rattlesnake?

Well, it seems I’m dating a regular Steve Irwin:

And in BB’s impromptu nature show, we have:

1. A stinkpot turtle…believe me, he has that name for a reason…stiiiiiiinky!

2. A diamondback water snake …don’t worry, he’s not venomous!

3. And a crawfish (or crawdad, or crayfish…to-MAY-to, to-MAH-to)

After a small presentation of each followed by a question and answer period, BB was patient with me as I asked him, “will it bite me?” before I petted each animal…

Unfortunately there were no stickers, candy, or balloon animals.

Obviously, BB needs to up his game if he ever plans on making a living out of this. Luckily, he was able to win me over with a little hand holding…

And the promise of a good meal!

Once we got back to Casa de Broccoli, I roasted up some MUTANT brussel sprouts (seriously, these things deserve their own zip code!) while he got to work on grilling up some swordfish!

At the last minute, we decided on some baked sweet potatoes too!

Mmm, mmm, MMMMM!

Yeah, I’d say he definitely has a future in the nature business…The Discovery Channel doesn’t even know what they’re missing! 😉

Did you have any outdoor OR culinary adventures this weekend?

Posted in Entree, Photography, Travel | Tagged Broccoli Babe, nature, outdoors, Photography, seafood, veggies | 10 Comments

Springtime on a Plate, Lemony-Split!

Posted on April 22, 2012 by kissmybroccoli

Happy Pancake Sunday lovelies!

I hope you are all having a great weekend. Unfortunately, Tennessee has been hit with quite the cold front this weekend so BB and I decided to skip the
Rivers & Spires Festival…they closed my wine tent early anyway…boo!

Actually, I spent most of the day yesterday in sweats, wrapped in a fleece blanket, holding a mug of hot tea. I became pretty spoiled over the last few weeks while we enjoyed cloudless skies and 80 degree days, but sadly, this morning the sun was nowhere to be found…just an ugly gray sky to wake up to.

So what did I do?

I brought the sunshine BACK…

with a stack of pancakes that just screamed springtime!

I woke up early yesterday morning, before BB (seems to be somewhat of a trend here lately…stupid internal alarm clock), so I decided to make the most of it:

I answered all of my emails and made a bazillion different folders for all the ones I refuse to delete, caught up with a few of my favorite bloggers,
and wasted about an hour of my life on Facebook (typical).

While catching up with Lauren, my fellow Pancake Sunday enthusiast, I saw that she made these Lemon Poppy Seed Pancakes and from that moment I could NOT get the thought of fluffy poppy-seeded lemon pancakes out of my mind.

Am I the only one who immediately thinks of the poppies scene in The Wizard of Oz every time I look at these cute little things?

Let’s hope I don’t get randomly drug tested this week! 😉

Anywho, back to the pancakes!

Since it was strongly suggested to top these babies with strawberries AND I’ve been craving them for WEEKS now, I ran to the store this morning and picked up a pint (they may not be in season, but they are perfectly delicious!) and I’m SO glad I did…the combo was fantastic!

In true Heather-fashion, while I was at the store, I picked up about $80 worth of other things (all things I did indeed need) but in true absent-minded Heather-fashion, once I got back to Casa de Broccoli, I realized…

I FORGOT the lemons!

Of course, that just gave me a reason to open up this little gem for the first time:

Never fear, Stevia is heeeeeeeeeere!

Instead of adding the lemon zest AND the sugar to the recipe, I subbed in 1/2 teaspoon (making 1/2 the recipe) of the new lemon-flavored stevia from NuNaturals (be on the lookout for a full review/giveaway in the future!)

And the result?

Even healthier lemon-flavored pancakes with zero sugar…according to fatsecret.com, I saved 62 calories and SIXTEEN grams of sugar per serving!

To keep up with the low sugar theme, I had an idea for what to top my stack of cakes with:

Lemon-Vanilla Protein Sauce
1/2 scoop vanilla protein powder + 5 drops lemon-flavored stevia + water to thin

You have GOT to try these pancakes…if you don’t have the lemon-stevia (yet), then use lemon zest and vanilla stevia, but seriously, just make these NOW!

Do you like lemon-flavored treats?
While I’ve never understood the fascination with lemon pie, lemon bars, or lemon cookies, for some reason you throw some lemon in a batch of muffins, bread, or in this case, pancakes, and I’m ALL over that stuff!

What did you have for breakfast this Sunday morning? Any other Pancake Sunday celebrators out there?

Posted in Breakfast, Pancake Sunday, Sugar-free/No Sugar Added | Tagged lemon, pancakes, poppy seeds, whole wheat pastry flour | 17 Comments

It’s the Freakin’ Weekend!

Posted on April 20, 2012 by kissmybroccoli

Happy Friday boos!

I can’t believe I actually made it through the week! I haven’t been this glad to see the start of the weekend since…well, about 7 days ago! 😉

Oh, if only we could get paid to lay outside in the grass, soaking up the sunshine…hmm, perhaps I could put myself out there for a sunscreen testing position…only I guess it would suck if the product failed. Lol!

So with the hustle and bustle of the week, I didn’t get a chance to tell you guys about last weekend! I had a little talk with BB last Friday and explained that while I LOVE going out and ~~spending money~~ doing things, the fund-age only goes so far…especially when I just paid for my plane ticket to BLEND…thankfully he is a man of few monetary needs so we ended up having a great FREE weekend (well, for me anyways)!

I have a hard time sleeping in on the weekends since I’m usually up around 5am for work or a workout during the week, so I typically end up rolling out of bed around 6:30 or 7:00. BB tends to work a little harder at getting his beauty sleep 😉 so for a couple of hours in the mornings, I have a bit of time to enjoy First Breakfast and some blog reading…last week I got caught up with my favorite diva while noshing on some PB Cheerios and apple cinnamon Chobani (YUM!).

Once my little bed-headed man got up, we spent some time laying around the house together before we went for a nice Saturday afternoon drive…

BB had mentioned that he wanted to stop by a gun shop down the road before we left…next thing I know he’s buying a brand new rifle and then looks over at me…

“You know, I really could use some ammo…”

With a simple nod of the head, we were on our way to Dick’s and a little over an hour later, I had one happy boy on my hands!

So much for “some” ammo….

Sporting goods stores are to the BB as is grocery stores and farmer’s markets are to me! 😉

How can you look at that face and not smile?

While we were there, he also picked up a few things of the fishing variety for his nephew and the next day we took a little road trip to give him his “presents”

It was the PERFECT day for fishing…

But I decided to let the boys have they’re male bonding time and sat on the bank of the pond with my recent literary obsession…

At the rate that I’m reading the second book in The Hunger Games series, I should finish it the night before the NEXT movie comes out!

Of course, I couldn’t help but be on standby with my camera to get a shot of what the boys caught:

While they enjoyed the rest of the afternoon talking reels and fishing lures, I ventured around the front of the house (how cool is it that they have a huge pond in their backyard?!) to find some other things I deemed photo-worthy.

Like this GORGEOUS azalea bush…

A sleepy kitty…

And BB’s nephew’s Easter bunny!

I mean, seriously, could she get any cuter?!

I’ll admit part of me thought about stuffing her in my purse and smuggling her home with me! 😉

But in the end, maturity* won out over stealing from a child so, bummed, bored and bunny-less, I chose other ways to entertain myself and BB on the way home…